


And the World Keeps Spinning

by Kairi_Ruka



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alabaster Can Do Coin Tricks, Alabaster's Father Cameo, Canonical Character Death, Father-Son Relationship, First Meetings, Gen, Not Beta Read, Pointless, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Self-Indulgent, Short & Sweet, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27073051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairi_Ruka/pseuds/Kairi_Ruka
Summary: "You need to do a grocery run, kid," Claymore pointed out, jerking his thumb to the kitchen."You don't need food, Claymore," said boy reminded him without turning from his work, mildly amused.Claymore shot him an unimpressed look. "Not for me, for you. From how it looks, it seems like you've been only surviving out of caffeine all this time."
Relationships: Howard Claymore & Alabaster Torrington
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	And the World Keeps Spinning

**Author's Note:**

> All characters belong to Rick Riordan. No, I'm not getting any profit out of this aside from serotonin
> 
> Enjoy!

"C'mon, Al, you ready?" a middle-aged man called out from the front door of his house, flipping his car key between his fingers.

A boy, with a pair of shocking green eyes and a mop of short, messy brown hair ran from the depth of the house, half of his jacket hanging from one arm. He put it on properly when he stopped in front of his father.

"Yeah, dad!" the boy, Alabaster, said excitedly. He rarely got out of his house, hence why his skin was unnaturally pale -- not enough to be suspected a vampire, but enough to make people suspect he was slightly sick. Although, luckily his cheery attitude seemed to contradict his sickly look.

They got into an old, beige Civic and Edward, the father, pulled out of the garage.

"Dad, I can do a new coin trick! Wanna see?" Alabaster asked, tilting his head to see his father's face.

The older man shot him a quick smile before back focusing on the street. "When we get back home, sure. I have to keep looking at the street now," he compromised. "That makes it, what? The twelfth trick?"

Alasbater didn't look disappointed as he pulled out a silver coin from his jacket pocket and started to flip it across his hands. "Eleventh, actually," he corrected, grinning. His father took one hand off the steering wheel and ruffled his son's hair.

"That's cool," he said, exasperatedly fond.

He parked the car in the supermarket parking lot and unlocked the doors. Alabaster tucked his coin back into his pocket and hopped out from the car.

He looked to his father, who smiled and took out a grocery list. "We each do half, as usual?" Edward asked. Alabaster nodded, and he watched as his father neatly tore the paper into two and gave him half of it.

"Be careful and don't get kidnapped, 'kay? We'll meet up near the cashier when you're done," his father said with a chuckle before both of them walked to opposite directions.

Alabaster scrutinized his list and decided to pick his share of groceries with a basket. He started at the very left aisle and picked up some juice boxes.

He faced a slight difficulty when he had to pick up some cheese and apparently the store staff decided that placing it on the top shelf was a good idea. Alabaster, with all of his four feet twelve height, clearly couldn't reach it. He looked around. There was no staff nearby that he could ask for help. The only person standing in the same aisle with him was a disgruntled looking man.

Alabaster thought of it for a moment before shrugging. His father never told him to not talk to strangers. As long as he was careful, he would be okay. What Edward told him, though, was to approach a stranger with an object in his hand to throw just in case the stranger is a bad person.

Also, his father already told him about his heritage, albeit both of them didn't make a big deal out of the fact aside from some education over Greek mythology by his father. One thing was for sure, he could easily run faster than a normal human.

So he approached the man and stopped a few steps away from the man, calling out to him. "Excuse me, sir, can you help me reach the top shelf?"

The man's posture tightened as he sighed and turned around with a forced smile on his face. "Have your parents never told you to be wary of strangers, kid?" he asked dryly.

"As long as I'm not getting kidnapped, it's fine," Alabaster replied. "Do you want to kidnap children?"

"No," the man said matter-of-factly. "Too much trouble. I don't even like children."

"Great! If you help me, I'll get out of your hair. How's that?" the green-eyed boy offered, pulling out his trustworthy silver coin and flipped it with one hand out of habit, over and over. The man stared at him for a moment before relenting and made a 'go on' gesture.

"Right, fine. What do you need me to get?" he asked, barely masking his mild annoyance.

Alabaster tilted his head and smiled, perfectly mirroring his father. "Only the cheese, if that's not much trouble," he said calmly.

∝

"You need to do a grocery run, kid," Claymore pointed out, jerking his thumb to the kitchen.

"You don't need food, Claymore," said boy reminded him without turning from his work, mildly amused.

Claymore shot him an unimpressed look. "Not for me, for you. From how it looks, it seems like you've been only surviving out of caffeine all this time."

Alabaster looked up at that from his sitting form on the sofa facing an array of notebooks and blank mistcards on the table. The dark rings under his eyes were still apparent, but already faded somewhat after a healthy amount of sleep for a week.

He shrugged and leaned back, hand searching his pants pocket for something. "I mean, that wouldn't be far enough from the truth. I couldn't really roam around freely with Lamia around. Your speech was an important exception."

"I'm actually surprised that she didn't wreck the auditorium when you came now that I know what was the problem," Claymore commented, folding his arms and leaning on the wall. He watched as Alabaster took out a shiny silver coin and stared at it for a while.

"She probably wanted to see what I was planning to do," the boy mused slowly and ran his finger on the coin's uneven surface. "In her mind, I had nowhere to go anyway. She had all the time in the world. Also, my spell only weakened when I talked to you before you went to go home. Before and after that, it was strong enough to shield me from her."

Claymore mulled over this for a few moments before his mind was back on the original track. "Right, interesting. Back to the first subject -- you have to buy groceries. Even powerful, you can't exactly function more days with only caffeinated drinks."

Alabaster sighed and started to throw the coin upwards, caught it, and threw it again. After three times, he changed the trick and started to flick the coin between his hands back and forth. "I mean … yeah, I think you're right. But the closest store is two miles away," he said, flipping his coin again anxiously.

"I can drive you there, if you want," Claymore offered nonchalantly. "Good thing I didn't take my own car running away from your sister, huh?"

Alabaster grimaced, clutching his coin in one hand. "Sorry ab-" he started to say, but the doctor waved him off.

"We talked about this. Don't apologize -- _again_ , that is. Everything's in the past now. If you don't let it go, what different does it make between you and other monsters?"

The green-eyed teenager blinked. "Huh," he slowly said. "Never thought about that."

"Good, now think about it, forget about that apology and get up. We're going now," Claymore commanded.

"You're being annoying," Alabaster grumbled. "I swear when I am finally able to fix my mistcards, the first thing I do will be putting you in one of them."

"I'm too stubborn for you to hold me inside longer than a few minutes," Claymore replied.

"Yeah, no doubt."

∝

Alabaster stepped out of the car and stretched, grimacing when he felt a little sore all over. Even with three days of full sleep, he hadn't completely recovered from his severe exhaustion yet.

He noticed that Claymore didn't get out from his seat in the car and turned back. "You're not coming inside?" he asked.

"No, I'll wait here. You'll manage on your own," the man simply stated. From his memory, he got a flash of something a boy said to him years ago. "Just don't get kidnapped."

Alabaster's green eyes flashed in a second of surprise. He blinked, then huffed out a short laugh. "What, not gonna say that I should be wary of strangers?" he replied, catching on.

Claymore's mouth tilted to a crooked, thin sarcastic smile. "If there's one stupid enough to try to get you, just run them over with a sword."

"Killing mortals is highly frowned upon, you know."

"What a pity," the mistform muttered ironically. "What are you waiting for? Do you really want me to play dad and warn you about strangers?"

Alabaster grinned. "No, I'll go in now. Be back at ten. Don't leave me here, 'kay?"

Claymore waved him off and watched as the teenager disappeared into the store from the car window.

"Leaving a kid at a store parking lot," he muttered to himself, sighing in disbelief. "What a real parent's move."

**Author's Note:**

> If you guessed that I got hyperfixated on Detroit: Become Human, you're right. Hence the coin scenes. But even before I watch the game, I think Alabaster really would do coin tricks. 
> 
> And I'm a sucker for a not-blood-related father-son relationship. Sue me.


End file.
